At 06:14 PM 6/2/02 -0500, you wrote:
>Now to find someone in Fort Worth Texas with an MFJ-852 noise receiver to
>hunt further with. Has anyone used this device ($99) from MFJ or found it
>useful? How close to an arcing pole hardware do you have to get to hear
>it - or conversely how far away can you hear arcing pole hardware at 136
>Mhz? My AM radio hears things for way too long a distance to be very useful
>here.
The MFJ unit is very well regarded by a friend who is an RFI pro, though he
says it could use a directional antenna and an attenuator (now it uses a
telescoping whip for both). You need to be reasonably close to the source
to get an indication at 136 MHz. You may find a portable shortwave radio a
useful intermediate option, operating at 30 MHz or so, to get you within a
couple of poles. You can use your body to shield the whip on either the
MFJ or an aircraft band radio to get some better directivity.
I bought a little IC-Q7A duo-band handitalkie at Dayton this year, because
it also does AM receive up to 375 MHz or so, in addition to 300MW on 2m and
440 fm. I plan to build a small moxon rectangle antenna to use with it,
and figure out some sort of attenuator (doesn't need to be
calibrated). For under $100 (AES Dayton price) I think it is a definite
improvement on the MFJ.
73, Pete N4ZR
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